the mermaid effect
by nefertiris
Summary: seline and her family have always been on the move ever since she experienced an incident when she was young. one day, her parents decide to move them to beacon hills, where they plan on staying. she's always had trouble keeping her secret from everyone but her parents, so moving to a supernatural, weird town isn't as bad as she anticipated it would be (teen wolf fic, s4, malia/oc)
1. prologue

Seline was so young when it happened and confused. The moon was shining so brightly through her window that night so she felt compeled to go outside and view it with her own eyes. She and her parents lived so conveniently close to the sea; they had bought a beach house before she was even born. Maybe that was one of the reasons as to why she loved the ocean so much.

The waves from the ocean crashed against the shore, making her smile lightly and approach it carefully. Seline was barely eleven that night, eyes locked on the glistening reflection of the moon on the water. She walked closer until the water reached her ankles, filling her entire body with a sort of serenity. The smile on her face had developed into a grin, but it was soon wiped away.

Before the girl had any time to react, something hard hit her head and a hand pushed her forward. During her unconsciousness, Seline felt her lungs tightening and filling with water. Internally, she screaned for help and tried to activate her body, but it was in vain.

When she believed she was truly dead, something strange happened. The ocean was cold around her body but something shone down and warmed her body. It was unexplainable, but Seline could open her eyes and see that it was simply the moon's reflection. It acted like a warm flashlight, heating her body up. Then she realized her heart was beating normally again.

Gasping for air, she pressed her fists against the bottom and pushed herself up until she stood on all fours with the water by her wrists and ankles. The water dropped from her hair, causing her to shudder. Once she had finally stopped coughing and breathing in air, she surveyed her surroundings and closed her eyes in relief. She wasn't dead. But how?

Seline thought she had lost her mind when it seemed as if though the moon answered her question by pulsating once. Looking up at it, the young girl frowned deeply and got out of the water, backing away from the ocean. She had never been so scared in her entire life; lips quivering, a shaking hand against her stomach and feet hurrying her back to her house.

Inside it, she ran to the bathroom and watched her pale face in the mirror. She hadn't even realized how much she had been crying until she saw her bloodshot eyes and teardrops marks on her cheeks. Thankfully she hadn't woken her parents up and she didn't even know what she'd tell them. How do you tell your parents someone tried to kill you?

Eventually, Seline managed to go back to bed. Shaken, traumatized, but she could close her eyes and fall asleep after a while. Maybe it helped that she was so young, but from that day on, she grew up faster than normally. She was always cautious, always trying not to stick out, and most importantly she had to adap to an entirely new lifestyle consider that night had turned her into a siren mermaid.


	2. moving day

"We're moving? Again?" Seline sighed as she turned to face her mother. The news had been dropped just like that and she felt tired just by thinking of the whole moving process.

"I'm sorry, we didn't want to tell you until it was decided. I know how you feel about it, but your dad and I got job offers in another town and we don't really... Like this one." Her mom, Chloe Johnson Moonves stated carefully, fiddling with her fingernails.

"Well... Lucky for you, I don't like this town either." Seline muttered. She then crossed her arms and leaned herself against the wall, a pouty look on her face.

"Don't give me that look, please." Chloe begged, taking a step closer to her daughter and caressed her cheek. "I'm so sorry we didn't discuss this with you, but it came out of the blue."

"So where exactly are we moving?"

"Beacon Hills." Seline grimaced out of confusion when her mom said that. She'd heard of that town before somewhere.

"Isn't that a really, really small town? With weird things going on?" She asked.

"It's a small town. But I don't know about the weird things." Chloe shrugged while she walked backwards and sat down on Seline's bed. "If anyone can handle weird, it's you."

"Gee, thanks mom." Seline smirked and rolled her eyes.

"Seriously. Have you looked your name up in the dictionary? It's hilarious how accurate it is."

"Yeah, yeah, my name refers to a person who's weird and gay, ha-ha." Seline cocked her head to the side and watched her mom stiffle a childish giggle. Ever since Chloe had stumbled across that definition, she never let that go. It was funny, Seline could admit that, but still. "When do we move?"

"Soon." Chloe murmured as she scratched the back of her neck. Seline knew that movement so well now; she deadpanned her mom and waited for a proper answer. "Next week. I'm sorry, I know we should've told you earlier–"

"Yeah, you should've." Seline scoffed and clenched her fists without thinking about it. "You're seriously gonna make me pack my things, say goodbye to the few friends I've made and this house in just a week? God mom, that's–"

Before Seline could finish, something happened to the glass of water on her bedside table. The water in it popped into nothing, causing them both to wince and look at it. Seline quickly stopped clenching her fists once she realized her anger had gotten to her powers and made them overheat the water.

"I will never get used to that." Chloe chuckled a bit, which put a weak but sad smile on Seline's face. "I know you don't like small towns, and I don't blame you for that. It's harder to keep your secret in a small town, but we could try for some changes."

"Mom, I turn into half a fish when I touch water. If people found out, they'd send me to a circus. Or to scientists." Seline sighed, turning her head to look at the older woman.

She had told her parents about her secret shortly after she drowned. It was impossible to even hide it from them considering the smallest drop of water transformed her. Thankfully, they accepted it pretty quickly. Chloe was even excited about it; she found mermaids cool and intriguing. Besides, keeping the secret from them would only complicate things more than if she didn't. For example, she didn't have to make up a lame lie about why she couldn't do the dishes or why water suddenly sprouted up when she got angry.

"That won't happen, okay? Just stay cool and don't go near water and you'll be fine. Besides, you said Beacon Hills was weird yourself. What if there are other supernatural creatures there? Then you wouldn't be so weird!" Chloe was grinning by the end, proud of how she had put her words in that last part. Seline rolled her eyes and then leaned her head against Chloe's shoulder. "Sweetie, you can't be afraid all the time. You have to relax and actually live your life."

"I know, and I do love to explore the sea. But there are so many ways you could get wet by. I can't pee in school because someone might walk in while I'm drying my big, orange tail."

"You've managed so far, haven't you?" Chloe encouraged her, which was true. Seline had learned to hold her bladder and barely even get the need to pee in general when she was in school or at any public places. And there had never been a public accident either, but she was still so afraid there'd be one soon.

"Fine. I'm okay with moving, as long as this can be a permanent destination. I hate moving, it takes up so much time and energy." Seline pouted, which was her specialty (it helped that her lips were so plump and her eyes so blue).

"I promise, if we like Beacon Hills, we'll stay there as long as you want to." Chloe kissed her daughter's head, ending the conversation, and got up to leave the room. She figured that Seline would start packing already; she was a time pessimist like that.

Seline watched her leave until she got up and surveyed her room. Through the years, she had always managed to fix her room almost the same way every time. Her room was her room and she hated changing it, even the smallest of details. With a sigh, she started to collect all her things and placed them on the bed until her dad got her boxes.

During that week, Seline and her parents helped each other to pack everything. Fortunately, they didn't own to many unnecessary things but Seline's smaller objects — such as seashells and collections — took up a lot of time. Especially since they had to carefully place them in boxes. She said goodbye to her friends and favorite teachers, and the cashier on her favorite café. On the last day, Seline made sure that she hadn't forgotten something in her room before she approached her mom in the kitchen, placing her phone and headphones on the counter.

"I'm gonna take a quick swim, if that's cool." She announced, receiving a simple nod from her mom. "When do we leave?"

"In five hours." Chloe smiled while she checked the time on her phone. "Be here in time, alright?"

"I promise. See you later." Seline chuckled, pecked her mom's cheek and hurried out the door.

They lived pretty close to the beach but not too close, which was nice because she had to take a walk there. Once she reached the beach, she moved toward the edge of it, where no one was and there was a small cliff she could hide behind when she came from swimming. The siren mermaid looked around herself before she dove into the water and swam forward.

It took about ten seconds before the magic kicked in. After that time had passed, her body turned into water for a split second and next her legs were replaced with her orange tail. She felt so much stronger like this considering the tail was heavy and strong itself and being underwater just made her happy.

Seline swam deeper into the ocean, arms forward and her tail picking up speed. When she reached her favorite area, she slowed down and watched the fish swim peacefully. A smile spread across her face. Everything was just so much more vivid, colorful and prominent under the water. The fish had hundreds of colors, and so did the corals and plants. Then there were the dolphins; happy, swimming animals that she often accompanied.

She could spend hours swimming. Not necessarily on purpose, but time went by so much faster because she always had so much fun and there was always something to do. Seline turned while swimming so the ocean surface was facing her. Sometimes she wished she could communicate with the animals, but that was way beyond reaching.

When it felt like a few hours had passed, she reluctantly swam back to the cliff side and dragged herself up from the waters. Seline huffed out some air and stretched out her arm. She used her special powers to heat her body up, thus drying it, and then stood up on her human feet. The wind breeze pushed her hair behind her shoulders as she returned home, where a truck full of their stuff was waiting.

"You're one minute late." Her dad, Daniel, smirked as she approached them. Seline rolled her eyes while getting inside the truck. Her mom handed her her phone and headphones with a smile.

"You left them on the kitchen counter."

"Thanks." Seline thanked her. She then plugged the headphones in and leaned her head against the window. The bad thing about swimming for so long is that the fatigue hits her like a bomb afterwards. So she closed her eyes and fell asleep instantly.

Seline often had vivid and rather strange dreams. They felt more real than a regular dream would, and sometimes they were metaphors for something that was going to happen or has happned. Very weird dreams. What she dreamt on the ride to her new home was messier than usual and blurry.

Seline stood on a desert-like hill, wind blowing and noises surrounding her. She blinked and noticed a building down in front of her, old and dusty. She couldn't make out what kind of building it was though, but the vibes were bad enough to make her shudder in her sleep. She heard gunshots, screaming and... Growls? Something similar to animalistic sounds. Then a sudden pain spread across her body, starting from the side of her waist. That's when she woke up, hastily looking around herself.

"Sweetie?" Chloe murmured and gently shook her daughter. "You alright? You look a little scared."

"I'm–" Seline started, noticing her mom's concerned expression. "I'm fine, it was just a dream. How long did I sleep?"

"Hours. We're almost there, maybe just half an hour left." Chloe shrugged and checked the time on her phone.

Seline turned the music off her phone so that she instead could turn it up on the truck radio and get her parents to sing. During this half hour, more or less, the three acted like fools to have fun and sang their lungs out. However, Seline could feel something weird in her chest the entire time — a somewhat allure to this town they were headed toward, and it only grew stronger the closer they got.

Doing her best to ignore it, Seline examined everything they drove by and then finally saw the Welcome to Beacon Hills! sign. She patted her mom's arm repeatedly until she too looked noticed that they were there.

Daniel drove up to a nice neighbourhood that looked pretty cosy and friendly. He parked the truck on the driveway to a beige colored house with a black roof. It seemed to be just the right size for their small family; big enough to fit them all and have maybe one or two extra rooms/spaces in which they could do something fun with.

"It's mostly like our old house inside. I made sure the rooms where similar enough so that we can decorate them basically the same way." He proclaimed, turning the engines off. Seline was actually excited for this; the neighbourhood looked nice and the house seemed like a home.

"Then let's start unpacking." She said, opened the door and got out of the truck. Chloe followed closely behind and opened the back of it. Then, after Daniel had found the key to the house and unlocked the door, they all started carrying boxes inside.

Seline was just about to climb the few stairs when she felt the box slipping out of her hands. Right when she leaned forward and almost dropped it, someone steadied it by putting a hand under it. She quickly looked up and blew some hair out of her face to lie her eyes on a boy about her age with dark hair and hispanic features.

"Got a steady grip of it?" He asked, and she realized that she had to properly hold it again.

"Yeah, thanks." She mumbled skeptically. "Who are you?"

"Oh, sorry. My name's Scott, I live just next door. My mom said that we'd get new neighbors and then I saw your truck, so I assumed that was you. I was just coming by to say hi." Scott introduced himself, motioning back to his house with his thumb.

"Hi." She smiled back, an unintentional charmful siren smile that Scott couldn't help but to admire. "I'm Seline. Moonves."

"Mccall." He grinned back, noticing how her blue eyes were glistening in the sunlight. Once Seline noticed his expression, she quickly wiped the charming smile off her face and cleared her throat.

"I have a few boxes to get inside, but I guess I'll see you later. Unless you want to help." She said as she began to move up the stairs. Chloe and Daniel saw the new person, frowning at each other but decided to ask her about it later.

"Sure, why not?" Scott shrugged before carefully grabbing a box himself and following their steps. "So will you go to the Beacon Hills high school?"

"I guess." Seline answered and made a face. "There's just one high school here, right?"

"Yeah, it's a pretty small town." Scott chuckled, earning a snort from her. "But it's nice. You'll love it here."

"I live here now, don't have another choice but to like it." She partly joked, making her mom look at her sadly.

"It's a good town." Scott smiled, sliding his hands down his pockets. "If you want to, I could introduce you to my friends. Can't be easy being the new girl, especially in our age."

Seline doubted. She didn't like the idea to be forced into a group circle, and definitely not when it seemed like this group circle had been through a lot together. But what other choice did she have? Spend her school days alone until someone finally speaks to her?

"I'd like that." She finally answered with a sloppy shrug. "As long as it isn't an awkward and forced introduction. I don't exactly wanna present myself." She quickly made sure he got that, lifting up her hands. "I just wanna... Smoothly join the group." She demonstrated by smoothly sliding her hands forward in the air.

"Got it." Scott laughed and slightly raised his eyebrows. "During lunch at school I can sit with you and then they can join one by one. That's smooth, right?"

"As smooth as I can imagine, yeah." Seline frowned with her lips in agreement and folded her arms together. "Sounds good. I'll see you at school then, Scott Mccall."

"See you at school." Scott winked, but in a friendly way, and turned around to go back to his house. Seline crookedly smiled while she turned herself around, only to be met by her parents smirking childishly. Sometimes she wondered if they were mentally at the age of fourteen.

"Oh, shut up, you guys know I prefer girls." Seline scoffed and then returned to packing up their new home.


	3. new people

"You know what? I want to back out. Can I leave before it's too late?" Seline began to panic, though she managed to make her voice sound chill.

"Calm down." Scott chuckled. He played with his food while he sat opposite to her on one of the lunch tables outside. "They're really nice, okay?"

"Oh no, I don't doubt they're nice. I just don't wanna be that awkward new person who has to introduce herself. Scott, thanks for the opportunity, but I can survive being alone." She continued, on her way to grab her plate and stand up when he gently seized her wrist.

"Seline, sit down. You wanna be alone through high school? I'll find a way to get you into our group anyway. Either it's now or later." Scott stated with a kind smile. Sighing in defeat, she relaxed and put her elbows against the table.

"You're annoying." She pouted, receiving a laugh back. "Unfortunately, you're also very nice."

"Yeah, I know." He agreed to both things with a casual shrug. Just then, another boy approached them, placed his hands on Scott's shoulders and sat down beside him.

"Who's this?" He asked and eyed her in a curious way, thankfully not making her feel uncomfortable.

"I'm Seline, new in town." She offered him a cute smile, making him feel like

jelly for a second, which showed. She mentally cursed at herself for not learning how to control whether it was a siren smile or a regular, human one. Or maybe he was just nervous around pretty girls in general.

"I'm–" He began, awkwardly scratching his neck. "I'm Stiles. Hi."

"Stiles. That's a pretty weird name." She noted, raising her eyebrows a little.

"It's a nickname. It's easier to pronounce than my real name." Stiles explained. Shortly after that, a strawberry blonde girl joined them, but she sat down beside Seline before she even noticed the new girl. Seline could tell just by her posture that she was used to being the queen over the place, and that made her feel like she was in the wrong group.

"Hi there, sweetheart. My name's Lydia Martin." The girl said, flicked her hair behind her shoulder smoothly and offered her a hand to shake. Seline timidly shook it for a second and smiled.

"I'm Seline Moon–"

"Scott!" Another girl called from afar, jogging toward them. "Sorry, we stayed to ask the teacher a question."

"Uh, no, you asked the teacher a question and I waited because I'm a good friend. I think." Someone else added from behind. The girl who had made the first comment looked asian, beautiful with black hair and a smile on her face as she sat down beside Scott. The other one joined Seline's side and she had dirty blonde hair, almost light brown, with plump features and a natural expression.

"Sorry, you were saying?" Lydia chuckled, concentrating on Seline again.

"Seline Moonves." She finished and glanced at the other girl beside her, whom she liked already for her bluntness.

"Cool name. Like I said, I'm Lydia, and this is Kira Yukimura..." Lydia said, pointing at Kira and then the other one. "And that's Malia Tate."

"Hi." Malia greeted her, placing her elbow against the table and resting her cheek against her fist.

"Don't worry, I was the new one too a while ago." Kira encouraged her, earning a frown back. "Oh yeah, Scott told me about you. Sorry."

"No, that's fine." Seline assured her with a friendly smile. It was then when they all — except Scott — took notice of her accent.

"Where did you use to live before you moved here?" Stiles asked curiously.

"Well... I was born in Australia and lived there until I was about eleven. Then we moved to New Orleans to try something new and get away from Sydney. After that we moved to Phoenix in Arizona, then for a very short while we tried Salem, but that wasn't for us. And now we're in Beacon Hills." She answered, hoping she hadn't bored them to death. Judging by their intrigued faces, she didn't.

"Wow. Quite the travellers." Kira observed with an almost impressed look on her face.

"Yeah, it's fun the first time, but you can never fully settle in a town when you move around like that. Hopefully we'll stay here for a long while." She tucked some of her blonde hair behind her ear and tried to decide which one she'd keep eye contact with. She settled for Scott.

"Well, you seem like a funnier neighbor than my last one so I hope you'll stay as well." He said, sounding genuine and that made her feel a little bit better about being the new kid.

"You're his new neighbor?" Lydia asked as she had her fork pointed toward the blonde one.

"Yeah."

"Cool. So, I've been meaning to ask you guys this before but now that Seline's here, it gives me more reason to ask. I want us to hang out sometime soon, maybe at my place? It's been a while since we hung out, especially after... Well." Lydia suggested, offering everyone a wide smile, partly fake because what had happened had obviously affected her deeply.

Seline knew better than to pry. It was evident that something heavy had happened and affected their private lives, but that's exactly what it was; their private lives. She simply nodded at Lydia with a wry smile too. Everyone seemed to like the idea, noddig and humming agreements. Malia was the only one who seemed a little bit lost but she too shrugged at the end.

"How about this friday? I don't have any plans." Kira proposed, resting her arms on the table. And so friday it was.

"What's your next lesson?" Stiles asked Seline in particular, and she had to think for a moment.

"History." She answered as she scratched the top of her head.

"Great! Let's get going." All of them got up from their seats and Seline followed them, trying not to seem like too much of a tail. Thankfully, Malia was by her side.

"I'm kinda new as well." Malia shared with her, turning her head so she could look at her. "I started this year too. It's really easy to become part of the pack." She added, causing Seline to frown at her. Scott glanced behind his shoulder as well.

"Did you just say pack?" Seline asked through a weak laughter.

"I meant group. I watch a lot of National Geographic." Malia waved it off, grinning.

"That's pretty cool." Seline chuckled and tucked some hair behind her ear. Malia suppressed a smile and focused her eyes on her feet instead.

They all had history at the same time considering they were in the same class, but Seline was the new and odd one without a seat. Scott hesitated before he sat down, giving her a look.

"Ah, the new student, right?" The asian teacher said from his spot by the desk. Seline averted her focus to him instead, weakly nodding. "Ms... Moonves, if I remember correctly?"

"That's correct." She smiled.

"I'm Mr. Yukimura." He informed, making her shoot Kira a questioning look. She nodded to confirm her question. "Please, take a seat anywhere. I think there's one empty spot over there."

Seline followed his gaze and silently exhaled in relief when the spot was beside Malia. She sat down quietly and Mr. Yukimura happily initiated the class. She always found it hard to concentrate on the first day, but today worked rarely well. Maybe it was because Mr. Yukimura had a passion for the subject and seemed to really love the stories he was sharing with the students.

Behind Malia sat Kira, and to Malia's other side sat Lydia. Scott and Stiles sat a few benches in front of them. Seline felt a twitch in her fingers, which made her subtly look around the room until her eyes landed on the bottle of water by a students' desk. Tilting her head to the side, she cracked a smile and focused on its coldness rather than the warmth, feeling her entire hands getting colder by the seconds.

That sometimes happened without her intentionally doing it; it always started with a twitch in the fingers when water was present near her. It was her mermaid sense kicking in and she couldn't do anything about it. She and water were connected in a way. Then there was the doing, where her good intentions took over. Most of the time, she used her powers to make it better for others. In this sitution, this guy probably want his water to be cold rather than warm.

"What are you smiling about?" Malia whispered to her, breaking the weird trance. Seline sat straight and slightly raised her eyebrows.

"Just thinking about something." She lied.

Once the class ended, they all started exiting the room. Seline walked behind the guy with the water bottle and tried to hide her smile when he drank from it and was shocked over how cold it was. He didn't seem like he was complaining though, so that was good.

"Hey, Sel." Scott caught up with her.

"Oh, we're already on the nickname basis?" She teased.

"Mhm." He nodded with a cute smile. "Anyway, do you have a car?"

"Nope." She answered.

"How do you get back home?"

"I walk." She shrugged as if it was no big deal. He almost seemed impressed at the same time as he was surprised.

"Walk? All the way home?"

"It's really not that long." She chuckled while shaking her head. "I've always preferred walking. Why are you asking?"

"Well, since we're neighbors now, I was gonna ask if you wanted a ride home from now on? And to school." He offered. She thought about it for a moment and folded her arms together carefully.

"I want to challenge you."

"Bring it."

"I challenge you to walk with me to and home from school every second week. One week we can drive and then one week we just walk." She challenged him.

"Challenge accepted." He said, then lowered his head a bit with a smirk. "Starting next week."

"Great." She chuckled and hopelessly shook her head.

Scott smiled at her cutely before he started moving toward the exit of the building. Seline followed silently beside him, looking around herself while they walked. She noticed Malia and Stiles standing from afar together, his arms around her waist. With a quiet sigh, Seline stopped once Scott stood by not a car, but a moped.

"What?" He asked and shrugged sloppily.

"You don't have a car yourself?" She scoffed, though not rudely. Just surprised.

"No, I like this better. Here." He handed her a helmet, which she reluctantly put on.

"I've never actually been on one of these before. So please be careful." She warned, carefully placing herself behind him. He merely winked at her and that didn't exactly calm her nerves. "Seriously."

"Seriously, I'll drive carefully. Promise." He assured her, then ignited the vehicle. She clung her hands to his waist, trying to find a comfortable way to put her feet.

Scott did as promised and drove carefully on the road. Seline did thankfully relax after a while as she realized how nice it was to have the wind blow at you while you're partly free to move in the air. Only partly, otherwise things could get bad. She looked over his shoulder and smiled, expression the nice feeling that way. Scott, being a werewolf in secret, could smell the happiness biologically and smiled to himself.

He slowed the pace down as they neared their houses and eventually stopped and shut the moped off outside her house. She took the helmet off, pushed some hair away from her face and handed it to him.

"Thanks." She said, folding her arms together softly.

"Yeah, of course." He waved it off and put the helmet in the moped trunk. "Is that barbeque?"

"What?" She frowned but turned to look. There was smoke rising in the air from the backyard and it did smell faintly of barbeque from where they were standing. "Wanna eat here?" She offered, raising her eyebrows at him, amused.

"Uh... Sure, why not?" He decided quickly, grinning because of the delicious smell.

Seline moved to the backyard with him following behind and poked her head out carefully. Her parents noticed them rather quickly and greeted happily. Scott introduced himself once again just in case they had slready forgotten him and Seline watched the entertainment.

"Are you making food enough for four?" She asked.

"Yes, of course." Chloe answered, making a funny face as if it should've been obvious. Daniel agreed by nodding an smiling before continuing with the preperations. The one who was doing the barbequing was Chloe, standing with her free hand against her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun.

"Great. You guys need any help?"

"No, thanks."

Seline led Scott to the outside balcony that was small, but not too small, and cosy. It was probably what she loved most about the new house, besides her room. She sat down on one of the couches, leaning back and one foot on the edge of it while he sat opposite to her and intertwined his hands together.

"So I know I'm supposed to just melt in with you guys, but tell me a little bit about everyone. Just a quick summary, so I know what I'm dealing with." She said, slightly tilting her head to the side.

"Sure, I can give you that. Stiles and I have been friends since we were kids and he's always there for you when you need it. He's sort of clever but very, very sarcastic. Like, he lives on being sarcastic. He also runs a lot for some reason." Scott started, smiling as he talked. Seline let out a soft chuckle at the end. "Lydia, the red haired one, is nice too. She's also intelligent, but she can be sassy sometimes, almost too sassy. But she's doing her best and she's being better than she was the first year. Kira moved here recently and she's very awkward, socially, but she's really fun to hang out with and she's kind, funny and curious. And then there's Malia..." Something weird inside of her jolted. "She's just as new as you are but she hasn't always been the most socially adapted person. She's very blunt and impulsive but really nice, cool and helpful when she wants to."

"And you?" She asked with a wry smile.

"I... Am a kind, genuine soul who's trying to pass high school and be the best friend I can be." He answered with a laughter, shrugging. "I don't know."

"Well, I know for sure that you are open-minded and good." She said in a low voice, winking.

"Kids! Food's ready!" Chloe called from behind the grill as she barbequed the last things.

Seline and Scott walked over to the adults and grabbed a plastic plate each. Beside the grill stood a small table where Chloe had put plates with the food on, and the two started taking what they wanted. Then Chloe and Daniel did the same and they all sat on the couches and ate. Scott started to feel more and more relaxed and comfortable, and her parents were really helping him to feel that way. Seline let her mom and dad drive the conversations most of the time while she and Scott listened instensely and commented every now and then. After they finished eating, Seline got up and fetched a smaller garbage can that they could throw the trash in.

"... I'm actually liking it here already." Daniel uttered, referring to the town. Scott smiled, almost proudly, and clasped his hands together against his lap.

"We've only been here for like, a day." Seline commented quietly with a smirk. She put a straw that she had taken from the kitchen in her glass and drank through ut. Scott noticed the oddness but decided to shake it off.

"So? I like this town. It's small enough but not suffocating and my new co-workers are great." Daniel explained vaguely.

"I like it too." Chloe shrugged and frowned with her lips.

"I haven't decided yet." Seline said, smiling at Scott with half raised eyebrows. He made a funny face that said something like, I'll make sure you'll like it. Trust me.

"I need to get back home now, but thank you so much for the food." Scott announced, standing up carefully.

"Do you wanna take some food with you? There's plenty left." Chloe offered with an arm resting on top of the couch. Scott thought about it for a moment.

"You sure? I'd usually politely decline but my mom's working a night shift at the hospital and she could use some food." He answered carefully. Seline smiled over the fact that he thought about his mom.

"Of course! I'll get you a lunch box." Chloe quickly got up and did just that. Seline joined Scott's side while he carefully put some food in the lunch box. He then thanked her parents again and left the backyard with her by his side.

"Is your mom a nurse or a doctor?" Seline asked curiously.

"Just a nurse." Scott answered and stopped when they reached his house.

"That's good. Nurses are important too." She pointed out, earning a soft smile from him. "I'll see you at school. And say hi to your mom from us."

"Of course. Bye."

The two parted ways and Seline started to think that maybe this wasn't going to be so bad, and maybe this would finally be the town where they would settle in for longer than just a few months.

* * *

 **hiiiii! i'm so sorry this story hasn't been updated in literally forever, i've just been so very lazy when it comes to writing this story and i don't know why but i'll try to update more often because i wanna write seline's story and i hope you like it so far! i've also changed my tumblr url to "princes-jasmine" in case you wanna see some more seline content xx**


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